CBI dismisses Lalu's petition for quashing fodder scam case

Ranchi: A special CBI court today dismissed fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad's petition pleading that he should not be tried for the case after being convicted in the same offence earlier.

The court of A K Rai dismissed the petition seeking to quash RC64A/96 pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 96 lakh from Deogarh Treasury in the 1990s.

In December last year, Prasad's counsel filed the petition under section 300 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and sub-section (1) of section 220 that states that a person once convicted or acquitted cannot be tried for the same offence.

"We petitioned to the court saying both the cases have the same witnesses, documents and evidences. So RC64A/96 should be a fodder scam case," one of Prasad's advocates Prabhat Kumar said here. Similar petitions were also filed by Prasad in connection with RC38A/96 and RC68A/96 which are scheduled to come up on July 14 and 15 respectively, Kumar said.

On September 30, Prasad was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison in the RC 20A/96 fodder case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from Chaibasa Treasury.